In medieval England, medical work was urgently needed, because one in three children died within a year, life expectancy was 50 years, and epidemics regularly killed hundreds of thousands of people.
As usual, John of Gadesden quotes Greek and Roman philosophers who wrote down their ideas about the workings of the body more than 1,000 years ago.
but Medicinal rose It also contains practices that the author learned from fellow English herbalists and his own experience. For example, John of Gaddesden recommended this remedy for a hangover:
“Wash the testicles with salt and vinegar.”
Women were to anoint their breasts, and both sexes could eat cabbage and sugar until the hangover subsided.
Take a bath in a boiled cat
According to John Gadesden, more drastic measures are needed if a patient has severe limb pain:
Take some kittens, cut them up, gut them and cook them with different spices. Use the water to bathe patients.
The other option was to “boil the fat from a cat and a dog and then put the fat into the stomach of a black-skinned cat”. Fry the cat and collect the meat juice, then apply it to the sore spots.
